Robin+-+Shelby

. Hello! My name is Shelby Burton. I'm sixteen and 1/2. I have a Mum and a Dad, but they've been divorced since I was about a year old. I live with my dad and his wife (my stepmom), Marisa. My mum had a girl before she was with my dad, and that's my sister, Shauna, who just turned twenty-one. My dad and stepmom also have three kids, my two little brothers, Braeden and Dominic, who are eight and six, respectively, and my little sister, Anelise, who is two. I have lived with them for a few years now, but I used to live in California with my mum and Shauna.I don't remember much from my life before I was about eight years old, but when I was in preschool, I know that I had a birthday party with all the other kids there. My mum brought cake for the class and we got to take time to celebrate, which was cool. She got a lot of pictures, including one of my friend Dillon, who stuffed his face with cake to make me laugh. In the picture, he had it smeared all over his face. I imagine it was pretty funny because in the picture, I was laughing. Dillon and I were apparently really good friends, so it was nice that he tried to make me smile on my birthday. I think if I could remember that, it would be a nice memory.I look forward to hearing back from you! Sincerely, Shelby

This is a picture of me...I really hate cameras, and also think I'm not photogenic at all, so it doesn't really show my face.



This is a picture (so you can actually see my face) of my cousin and best friend, Chanel and me. I'm the one on the left. That's my little brother Braeden's fist in the corner.

Yesterday I got my first Christmas present, an early gift from my parents. They let me have unlimited texting for my cell phone, which is nice because my friends all have the ability to text, so now I can communicate with them whenever I need to without worrying about going over (because I hate talking on the phone >.< ). I tried it out by talking to Chanel (my cousin, in the picture above), my friend Ra-ra, another old friend of mine, Wes, and my big brother Ty-ty all in one day. For the record, Ty-ty isn't really my big brother, but he's my friend and my best friend's friend as well, so I decided he was going to be my big brother. He treats me like his little sister, even, by taking care of me and looking out for me when I need help. Scott, who's also in this Chinese class, is also a "big brother" of mine because we're pretty close, too. Anyways, I also got my first Christmas present from a friend to-day, a Starbucks gift card from an old friend, Kendra. She's been going to the same school as me for the past five or six years, so we've been able to stay close even through high school, which is nice. It had $15 on it, so we all went across the street because there's a Starbuck's right by the school, and we all got hot cocoa and treats. It was delicious, and I thought it was so nice of Kendra to have gotten me such an extravagant gift! I also gave her her Christmas present from me, a cute little white teddy bear. I felt rather bad, though, that her gift was obviously so much more expensive than mine. I wish I could spend more on each of my friends, but for Christmas this year, I bought about 20 of my closest friends little presents to give to them so they can enjoy Christmas just a little bit more. I just wish I had a job where I could earn more money so I could have gotten them all bigger gifts, but I hope they like them all the same. My favourite part about Christmas this year is that I had over $200 saved up from working over the summer that I was able to spend on many gifts for my friends and family for Christmas. I really hope they all like them because, especially in the case of my family, I spent a lot of time trying to find just the right present for them! Over break, I think I'll be babysitting a lot for my parents and trying too see my friend Cody as much as possible before he goes off to Florida. I'm also hoping to see my big brother Tyler, but I'm not sure whether he's going to join us or not on Christmas Eve for church because he might be going snowboarding. I wish I could come with him because he's promised to teach me how to snowboard, as well, which I think would be really interesting (as it's on my list of things to do before I die), but I don't think my parents would let me spend so much time away from home, and with a high school boy, no less. They're very overprotective because I'm their first teenage daughter. All the same, it would be nice to see him over break, and I'd like to have some sort of party with him and our other friends, Sam and Aaron, because I love sharing the holidays with everyone. It's just a pity so many people are too busy to really hang out over the break because I know I'll be stuck at home, but I guess I can at least finish the three books I've been working on in a couple days, and then maybe I'll just find something else to read. That's about all I really have planned for break. I hope you have a good Christmas as well, if that's what you celebrate.

Here's my story about elementary school. Let's see...one of my first vivid memories is when I was in fourth grade, I had just moved back to Colorado (because after my mum married her third husband, around the time I was five, we moved to California and I lived there until fourth grade) and was a student at the school where my stepmom was a teacher. Sometime during the second half of the year, I remember having gotten a B on my history test. When I brought it to show to my stepmom, she was unhappy at me for having gotten a B on a test and grounded me because she said I needed to spend more time studying. I felt pretty bad because I'd never had anyone ashamed of my grades before. But at the same time it taught me that I should try my hardest in school.